A Student Aid Bill of Rights 1. Every student should have access to quality, affordable education and colleges and universities should find new ways to reduce costs, accelerate learning and help students earn degrees and certificates. 2. Every student should be able to easily access the resources needed to help pay for college, including scholarships that keeps pace with educational costs. 3. Every student who borrows a student loan should be able to choose a repayment plan that allows them to afford their monthly payments. (For example: Student Loan Refinancing, Income Based Repayment and Pay As You Earn) 4. Every student who borrows a student loan should have the right to high-quality customer service, including timely and reliable information about their loans and fair treatment if they face challenges repaying their loans.

Our school has felt the negative impacts of teaching to the test. New York State Tests take away valuable time in the classroom from creative learning and stimulating projects. Now, Governor Cuomo wants to make these oppressive tests count even more toward a teacher's evaluation, worsening the problem. As students, it is our responsibility to speak out against this injustice because this is our education and our future.

The Governor's Opportunity Agenda does not support our public schools. We need a budget that helps teachers do their jobs. We are calling on legislators to approve a $2.2 billion state aid increase, end the GAP Elimination Adjustment; make good on districts’ prior-year claims; invest in statewide universal pre-kindergarten; embrace community schools; reduce class sizes; and reject any attempt to increase the impact of state standardized testing.

It's time for Newsday to be accountable for their biased reporting and get the real facts about teaching in Public Schools from the people who are in these classrooms everyday. They have no clue what it's like to be a teacher in today's classroom.

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The student council holds beliefs that are completely contrary to their positions. Their actions and subsequent apology are proof they do not possess the qualities required for the position.

I am starting this petition because I believe that the law makers that represent me need to know that what is happening to public schools is destroying our students' education. These young citizens deserve a fully funded education. We cannot give them the best possible experience if we are not supported by our government. It has to start with our local representatives. Please help!

Our teachers and support staff work hard every day to ensure our students in Volusia County get a high-quality public education. We ask that you respect Volusia County teachers, support staff and parents by providing a clean learning environment for our children; by investing in sufficient teaching resources; and by ensuring our schools are competitive with surrounding districts in terms of compensation. I am so grateful my child attends a school where the educators care so much about their students’ future. It is clear to me that they love working with my child, and it only seems logical that the county’s school board would be fair and supportive of the work educators do for my family and our community. When I heard that Volusia educators were standing up to address problems in our schools—the lack of learning materials, the insufficient amount of time available to engage students individually, the lack of support staff to do things like keep schools clean—I knew it was my responsibility to join them. I believe both teachers and parents play an important role in educating our children. That is why I have participated in walk-in protests with other parents and educators to show our solidarity and to show the school board and our county that we care about the conditions provided to teach our kids. The school board’s responsibility is to support educators in the teaching of our children and to provide sufficient resources for our schools—and it has the opportunity to address some of these issues during bargaining sessions happening right now. But until the school board does, we will continue marching every morning into our schools. Our school district’s vision statement says, “To make that vision a reality, we should be attracting and keeping hardworking employees by offering better wages, and we should be providing the materials and learning environments all students need to be successful.” To make that vision a reality, we should be attracting and keeping hardworking employees by offering better wages, clean learning environments and the materials all students need to be successful. Please join me today and tell the School Board of Volusia County that you support our teachers and school staff in our fight to improve our schools. This means recruiting and retaining the best while providing full resources and clean schools for our kids. Let’s reclaim Volusia County and provide the best education for all. Sincerely, Joanna Kaney Olivari

Massachusetts should lead on education, but when it comes to early education we're falling behind. While states like Oklahoma guarantee a year of public preschool, Massachusetts state spending on early education and care, adjusting for inflation, has declined by 50% since 2001. 1 That's not only wrong; it's short-sighted because we know that for every $1 we spend on early education, we save $7 over time. Recent studies show that kids who attend preschool not only do better in school as they grow older, they're also more likely to go to college and get a good job. We're launching a new statewide effort to show that it's time to invest in our youngest learners. We're working to get towns like Malden, and other towns across the state, to speak up and pass local resolutions in favor of early education. It's not fair that some children start kindergarten behind because their parents aren't in a position to pay for their children's early education. This is America, and we're all supposed to get a fair shot. 1. http://www.putmakidsfirst.org/about-us/

The Federal Agency from the Education Department is not flexible about lowering student loan interest rates. America went through some rough financial times, and Banks were mandated to reduce mortgage loans and were even penalized for their actions. Homeowners were given debt relief of but not students. Therefore, actions from the Federal Government to help the student population to recover from financial hardships are required to lower the high interest rates immediately. These rates should not exceed 2.5% and should not have extra condition. This low rate should be maintained for all future Student Loan programs. Education is the basis for a strong society and should be encouraged with low interest rates. These rates should be available for ALL types of student loans making Graduate and Post Graduate education accessible for this Nation's striving Economy.

I started this petition because I'm currently in a school in East San Jose where most of the students that attend this school are Latinos. A high percentage of our teachers have very little experience. This means that they are less effective at resolving a number of problems, such as: maintaining discipline, motivating students, and adapting instructions for students with special and learning needs.

As a parent and a public school teacher, I am disgusted with the amount of importance the governor is looking to place on standardized testing. Under the governor's new proposal, a teacher's evaluation would be based more than double what it is now on test scores. Children are already having too much of their school day wasted on test prep, with only 20% of teacher evaluations based on test scores. I can only imagine how out of control it would get with 50% of the evaluation based on test scores. We have great teachers across our state. TEACHERS are not the problem. Stop punishing schools and give them the money you owe them Mr. Governor. Put education ahead of your political agenda and billionaire charter school campaign contributors.